Happy { One Year } Anniversary

To my handsome husband



★ I'm thankful for the fact that we were in the right place at the right time. At that moment, fate meant nothing to me - thank you for making me a believer.





★ I'm thankful that our jobs both brought us to LA and that mine showed me that Seattle was where I truly belonged.

★ I'm thankful that we were both late for our flight. Not thankful, that we're now late for just about everything.

★ I'm thankful that I enticed you with my 2-fifths of vodka - thankfully, the "no liquid over 3oz" rule hadn't been put in place yet...otherwise, you may have been tempted to switch seats with someone else.

★ I'm thankful for the day you asked me to marry you atop Haleakala in Maui.

★ I'm thankful for our wedding day and the family and friends that traveled to celebrate with us. We've both said that we felt more love that day than ever before - I still believe it and wish we could go back and hit pause.

★ I'm thankful for your patience, your charm, your honestly, your love for our families, your way of knowing how to fix anything and everything, your smarts, your socks, your homemade dinners...

One year ago today, I married my best friend, when we said I Do in the most beautiful setting with the most important people in our lives around us.

I look forward to the day that Willard Scott (he'll do the Smuckers birthdays and anniversaries forever, right?) announces our 50th wedding anniversary on Today. The past year has been pretty perfect, but I know the next 50 years will only get better.



Steve - thank you for making me a lucky lady. I love you. I can't wait for our "anniversary" trip to Palm Springs next week and our trip to the Virgin Islands.

You Know It's Love...

When your Valentine shows up with your favorite coffee (tall, skinny, vanilla, extra-hot latte), one long stem rose (told him not to spend over $10), and one of his favorite breakfast options - Lit'l Smokies. Apparently, we will no longer be doing any holiday breakfasts sans Lit's Smokies.

Steve and I had a wonderful Valentine's Day. We worked a bit around the house, enjoyed a delicious breakfast, went for a drive out to Flaming Gyser State Park (only to find out once we arrived that it was closed), saw Valentine's Day at Kent Station (cute movie - great/gorgeous cast), ate dinner at Fondi, dropped off a card at my in-laws, drank some wine and watched the Olympics. Honestly, a fairly normal weekend day for us, but a bit extra special as it was our first Valentine's as a married couple.

♥ Hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine's Day spent with the ones you love ♥

Quad { 30th } Birthday Party

With four of our good girlfriends turning 30 all in the month of February, we decided to do a combined party for these lovely ladies at Kell's in Post Alley last weekend. Lynds flew in from LA (along with Avery, Christy and Lori) and Laura few up from Northern CA to celebrate their "Quad-City-Bday" with Wexler and Spry. I always love that Steve is so willing to take photos at these get-togethers with our friends, but unfortunatley out of the 185 photos, this is all we got that are post-worthy...

Steve and Erik drinking Absinthe at the Polar Bar (bar at the hotel)

We started out the night by meeting up with Carrie and Erik (who flew in from DC for the party) at The Arctic Club Hotel, which is where the four of us had booked rooms for the night. We met up in the lobby for a couple of drinks, got ready and then headed out for a delicious dinner at the Pink Door. After dinner and a couple of bottles of champagne, we met up with every (just across the alleyway) at Kells. The night was a blast! So fun to catch up with friends from college that I hadn't seen in years. After the party, we headed back to the luxurious hotel with the Reynolds. Carrie was off to London in the morning for work and Erik back to DC...or at least he thought, until his flight was cancelled due to snow and he ended up coming to our house for for the night and to watch the Super Bowl with the Rinabarger's, Roth, Cheryl, Jamie, Spry, Avery and Lynds.
I love weekends with friends in town, but I'm so sad when they all leave...we definitely need to get our next adventure on the calendar soon!

The Reynolds

* If you're looking for a hotel room for a night or a weekend in downtown Seattle, I HIGHLY recommend The Arctic Club. The rooms are large and beautifully decorated with an early 1900's style. The staff was very friendly and helpful. We enjoyed a very reasonably priced and delicious brunch, the following morning at their restaurant, Juno.

:: Whistler or Bust ::

Tomorrow night we're off to Whistler for a quick two-day trip. Contemplating skiing, but may snowshoe instead. I'm honestly over-the-moon (do 30 year olds use this expression? because I kinda like it) excited as I've never been in the winter and have not been since 1987! Any suggestions on places to check out while we're visiting our neighbors to the north would be greatly appreciated.

I'm assuming a lot has changed and it doesn't look much like this anymore...

This is how I remember the border crossing with Cousin Matt and Cousin Mike...is it the same 23 years later?



Mom, Me and Megs (yes, that's my gorgeous sister...nope...don't have a brother)

Sidenote: My dad is in the process of scanning every single photo from every album he has from his childhood, my moms childhood and from when me and Megs were kids. Stayed tuned for some fun oldies.

Just a Little Montage...

Of two of my favorite babies ...
"Why?" You may ask

Because I got to spend an entire night with them and their mama on Friday, at my house. The night also included one too many bottles of red wine (after the babies went to bed...of course), but I won't get into that. Since Steve and I live so far away from the rest of the world, trips to our house sometimes include a slumber party. Perfect because I love the company and love putting our guest bedroom to use. One of the best parts of the night was Ava calling Spry, asking if her tummy hurt because she ate so much dessert and then convincing her to come over and hang out. Spry - thanks for coming over twice in one week!!

On the "train" heading to Seattle

Few things I learned from our slumber party...Miles Loves his baths before bedtime, Ava loves to make Miles laugh, Miles' head is quite possibly four times larger than his buns, Miles doesn't have much to cry about, Ava's imagination is endless and finally...Going to bed at 3am and being woken up at 7:30am by kids jumping on your bed is not easy, but it did make me smile.
Distance has definitely made my heart grow fonder for these two blue-eyed babies...makes me wish even more that we didn't live 300+ miles apart so we could sleepover together more often.

Avery's 30th Birthday Bash :: Solvang, CA

I'm thinking it's about time to get back to blogging since it's now been over a month (not to mention a new decade) since my last post. In all honesty, I have truly missed updating my blog, but decided I needed a bit of a break...break is now over and I'm ready to dive back in...I hope. Enough of my excuses.
The weekend of December 10 - 13, was dedicated to celebrating one of my closest friends 30th birthdays in Southern California. Avery and I went to WSU together, caravanned to LA a week after graduating, lived together for four years and have shared a lot of great memories. Being that she has a Christmas-time birthday, we decided to celebrate a couple of weeks early in a Very-Big-Way...minus a few hangovers and geting lost in Hope Ranch the trip went off without a hitch

Hands . Down . One . Of . The . Best . Weekends . Ever

Here's a few stats that express how much Avery is loved and how much our group of friends from college still love to reconnect:

♦ Carrie flew in from Washington DC
♦ Stacie flew in from Boston
♦ Jackie flew in from Ohio
♦ Myself, Jamie, Marge, Spry, Steph, Lynne, Michelle and Rauh flew in from Seattle
♦ Crystal drove down from San Francisco
♦ Shelby drove up from San Diego
♦ And the girls that live in LA - Avery, Lyndsy, Lori, Christy, Jaime, Brooke and Ashleigh

Most of us arrived by Thursday night so we met up for a few cocktails at Nikki Beach in Venice amd then stayed in Santa Monica at the Doubletree. Friday morning, a few of us met for breakfast at Huckleberry with Dett, Tara and baby Jackson. I could have spent hours cuddling this adorable little guy. Considering he was passed around a table of 10 girls, he was perfect! And of course, it was so fun to finally get to catch up with Dett and Tara in person.

Tara with her baby boy

After breakfast, we headed out for our destination - Solvang! Think Leavenworth charm...in the middle of beautiful wine country. We checked into our hotel and headed out to Carivintas Winery Tasting Room. Next stop Root 246 for some dinner and drinks. From dinner a few peeps called it a night while the rest of us enjoyed a bit of a dance party in the rain, in the streets of Solvang to Mariah Carey "All I Want for Christmas." We then considered calling it a night, but instead convinced the Bradford Wine Bar to stay open a bit longer for us to indulge in some tastings.

Saturday morning we dressed in our plaid tops (yes, this was planned ahead of time), and ventured out on our winery tour excursion via party bus. During the five hour tour, we were able to check out four beautiful wineries...My personal favorite was Zaca Mesa - the grounds were absolutely gorgeous and the wine delicious.

✓ Curtis Winery
✓ Zaca Mesa Winery
✓ Firestone Vineyards
✓ Sunstone Vineyards & Winery

Despite the torrential downpour at times, the day was perfect! We laughed, we sang, we danced (possibly in not the most appropriate places). Pretty much the most ideal girls/birthday weekend on record. Here are just a few of the photos that I captured.

Michelle's best interpretation of Marissa from the OC passed out in Tijuana


Not quite sure...possibly embracing a cool chandelier at Root 246






Apparently, Brooke had had enough smiling and laughing for the day...perhaps partly due to this famous quote..."We'll Split Me In Two and Cover Me in Ice Cream - It's Your Birthday"

*tis the Season

For dark chocolates and peppermint candies...

I was motivated, after reading JOAT's recommendation for the Peppermint Crunch Junior Mints, to share a few of my personal favorite holiday treats. I love any treat that includes peppermint bark.

In my mind, Williams-Sonoma peppermint bark is probably the most famous and I'd take a lucky guess to assume that it's one of their most popular sold holiday candies of the season. Excellent stocking stuffer or hostess gift.

William Sonoma Peppermint Bark

My mother-in-law keeps a candy dish in the kitchen so whenever we stop by, we usually come home with a few treats. The other night Steve came home with a few of these - DEEEE-LICIOUS!

Dove Peppermint Bark Dark Chocolate Promises

Pretzels are one of my very favorite snack foods, especially when they're flavored, so last week, I found this tasty morsel at Whole Foods and figured it was a must have - zero regrets...other than not buying more than one bag. As with most peppermint flavored treats, they're a limited edition product so be sure to stock up.

Snack Factory - White Chocolate and Peppermint Pretzel crackers

Ghiradelli chocolates are some of the most famous chocolates around - of course they would have a peppermint chocolate and of course it would be wonderful Something I did not know is that they also make an eggnog chocolate { Lynds - me.you.must.try } and pecan pie chocolate, which is included in the assortment of holiday chocolates, available at Amazon.com

Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares Limited Edition Holiday Assortment

And...for those of you in Seattle, there are the famous Frango Candy Cane Chocolates available at Macys...however, I checked their website today and they are not currently available - hopefully they've got them in the stores, as they're a treat not to miss.

* Hope your stockings include a few peppermint bark chocolates *